The creation "greater world"

[V1G1LANC3]

If you've seen my previous map it is an insert of this map which predicts the greater world. I made this map earlier so it does not have the same aesthetically pleasing parchment look. However its a map, that I spent a great deal of time on and I hope you check it out and comment. The map is made by the Alphatans (Centre). Who due to their centric imperialism always place themselves in the centre of the world due to nationalistic biases. The Map has a full fledged lore and history to back it up which explain the symbolism and references in the Maps vectors. This map was made earlier than the Alphatos insert map I posted previously similar techniques where used to make it. Mostly Hand drawn and paint.net to digitalise text and such. A lot of my vectors come from a professional program called Armorial gold.

[Mouse]

This is a very detailed map which you have obviously spent a great deal of time creating with a lot of care and patience.

I know you have finished this one now, but what I said about your Palestine map also applies to this one - about giving the text a halo of clear space to separate it from the line work (and I know you have already said you are going to look into it)

In addition to that suggestion, can I ask - is the software you use to make the text capable of bending the labels? If so it might be worth considering curving some labels in the future rather than just rotating them as straight but diagonal. Curved text looks especially good along the crest of mountain chains, or along the curving axis of a long thin country.

[V1G1LANC3]

Yeah definitely, as I said paint.net does have its limitations and Text is one of those area's where it is highly limited, from what I have discovered there is no option to mutilate the curvature of Text, and a glow/halo effect option is not available for text, however with some manipulation of the graphics options I could possibly produce something similar. Does Gimp have these options I have not yet used it so I wouldn't know? Text curvature would be really handy for placing text along large expansive features with irregular shapes such as rivers, inlets, passes ETC.

[Mouse]

GIMP has a limited way of curving text. You have to lay down a path for the text, but if its longer than the text you have to build in the spacing when you type the text before aligning it with the path so that the name isn't all bunched up at one end of it.

You might find that Inkscape is better at making labels, which you can then either use in Inkscape, or export as transparent PNG files and import into GIMP or Paint, depending on where your main map is, but that makes it a bit time consuming and bitty.

From the same map I showed you an extract of earlier in your other thread this is an example of curved text done in GIMP. This example also shows a dashed line 'stroked' along another path.

curvy text.JPG

'River Gurguzzle' in this example was typed with a space between each letter and a triple space between the two words to make it stretch along the path properly.